Another Chance Book I of III

Book III-Chapter 57, A New Year, New Challenges Part 1

A New Year, New Challenges

Bella's POV

"This is the Captain speaking", Greg Landers said in his distinctive voice. " Flight Attendants please prepare the cabin for landing". A female attendant said "Ladies and gentleman, please bring your seat backs up into the locked position and have your trash ready for pickup. Please also stow your tray tables back into the locked position. We will be landing in 15 minutes". Bella and Prince had been napping but heard the directions of the flight attendants and let their seat backs up and closed their tray tables. Prince stowed the headphones back into the passenger seat pockets and holding Bella's hand said "we are almost home". She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. They once again would clear customs on the plane thanks to Greg and would remain on the plane until their security pulled up the SUV and Bella's Nissan air car. Within 20 minutes of landing they had their luggage and were in the air cars headed to their home. The two cars landed, pulled into the driveway and then into the garage and waited in the vehicles while Frank and Larry disengaged the alarm system and walked the house. They returned to say all was clear and they piled out of the car. All of the wives except Melvin's girlfriend had taken flights back to their home cities. Helen had traveled back with them as Los Angeles was home for her. Melvin took the Nissan to drop her off at home. As the four entered the house, security brought their bags in and took them to their bedrooms.

Bella and Elaine busied themselves with unpacking the suitcases and sorting out the clothes that needed to be washed. They took those into the laundry room and put them into their individual hampers after combining a first load which they would wash tonight. Elaine started the load of clothes. Bella went into the kitchen and poured four glasses of Grape Juice and took them back into the family room. The security men had gone into their rooms and would not resurface until tomorrow for breakfast. She then went back into the kitchen and pulled some turkey sausage patties out of the freezer for in the morning They would need to go to the store for some fresh eggs and bread though. With daylight savings time, the sun was still up and she was almost tempted to run to the store herself, but remembering what had happened while they were in Detroit quickly abandoned that thought. She returned to the family room where Prince and Carlos were looking at some of the many photos that they had taken while on vacation, both in Detroit and in Paris. "Baby we need some eggs and bread for breakfast in the morning", Bella said. Prince and Carlos called Frank and he went with them to the store. While they were gone, Bella and Elaine had examined their designer dresses and the pants and tops from Chanel and decided that the dresses needed to be cleaned, but the Chanel outfits just needed to be pressed. They would take them to the cleaners on the way to or from Arista tomorrow. The pressing they would do themselves. Prince's white suit also needed cleaning, so Bella bundled it with their dresses. As she examined Carlos' suits, Elaine found only the one he had performed in needed cleaning, so it was bundled with the others. When the guys returned, the girls sat down next to their men and told them how much they had enjoyed the trip. They laughed about some of the things they had seen and experienced and then turned the conversation to a more serious focus. They of course spoke about Uriel's appearance in saving the little boy.

Tomorrow the work started again. Elaine would be working on the screen play, while Bella tackled the book release and tour with Prince's help. They would all participate in proofreading the screen play before submission to U of M or to Arista. They talked about the fact that the girls would graduate in 4 short months...but they would be working their tails off until then. Add to the known items to be scheduled the fact that Christian was also talking about a limited release of the album in Paris, which Prince instinctively knew would be expanded to at least one if not two other countries, they faced an incredibly busy 4-6 months which if the screenplay was accepted would turn into far more like 10 total months of solid work what with the recording of the musical sequences and the story line, editing and subsequent release appearances. They would probably not come up for air until the end of October and then they had a wedding to plan. They would need all of the discipline they could muster and Prince would have to make some tough decisions because a tour would be expected right after the release of the film. Bella knew he did not want their wedding to be eclipsed by all of this and so they would need to talk it out and be prepared for push back from Christian. Prince would not allow anything to minimize the importance of a once in a life time event with his Bella. While they were talking, Bella and Elaine were taking notes so that they would have a record of all of the items they had identified needed to be planned for. Looking at the clock it was already 9:00 PM California time, but that was 3:00 in the morning Paris time. They decided they should get some sleep so they would be fresh for the meeting at Arista tomorrow. Bella went and put the clothes in the dryer and returning, she and Elaine hugged saying to each other, "we can do this" and went to their rooms with their men for the night.